Thursday - 05/30/2019

What We Did Today
We took an assessment on empires.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
How did your assessment go?

Thursday - 05/23/2019

What We Did Today
We compared Athens, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire in their size, location, forms of government, and power structure.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Athens; Roman Republic; Roman Empire.

Wednesday - 05/22/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring empires.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Roman Empire; timeline.

Tuesday - 05/21/2019

What We Did Today
We discussed the powers of emperors, using Caesar Augustus as an example.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Powers of an emperor; the Deeds of Divine Augustus.

Monday - 05/20/2019

What We Did Today
We read and took notes on the Roman Republic.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Roman Republic; consuls; Senate.

Friday - 05/17/2019

What We Did Today
We began discussing the Roman Republic.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Athenian democracy; Roman republic.

Thursday - 05/16/2019

What We Did Today
We continued talking about Athenian Democracy (read and took notes on power and authority in ancient Athens).

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Athens; power and authority.

Wednesday - 05/15/2019

What We Did Today
We started exploring structures of power and authority during Era 3; we started specifically looking at Athens and its particular form of democracy.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Athens; city-state.

Monday - 05/13/2019

What We Did Today
We finished discussing leaders of early empires.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Alexander; Chandragupta; Cyrus II; Darius I.

Monday - 05/06/2019

What We Did Today
We explored four leaders of empires, to examine what made them strong, successful leaders.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Cyrus II; Darius I; Chandragupta; Alexander the Great.

Friday - 05/03/2019

What We Did Today
We finished our intro to empires.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Assyrian Empire; Persian Empire; Alexander the Great.

Monday - 04/29/2019

What We Did Today
We took the ELA M-Step (at least we started it).

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
M-Step.

Friday - 04/26/2019

What We Did Today
We further explored how civilizations developed into empires.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
What makes an empire?

Thursday - 04/25/2019

What We Did Today
We started exploring what makes an empire.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starter
Why would empires arise out of city-states? What is a city-state?

Tuesday - 04/23/2019

What We Did Today
We finished talking about technologies of Era 2.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Chariots.

Monday - 04/22/2019

What We Did Today
We explored technologies (wheeled vehicles, bronze).

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Wheeled technologies; bronze.

Wednesday - 04/17/2019

What We Did Today
We explored technologies of Era 2; we also presented technologies to our classmates.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
What tech did your group study?

Tuesday - 04/16/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring technologies that changed lives during Era 2.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Pottery; the plow; irrigation; woven textiles; metallurgy...

Thursday - 04/11/2019

What We Did Today
We continued our exploration of technologies of Era 2 that changed people's lives (today's focus: irrigation).

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Irrigation.

Wednesday - 03/27/2019

What We Did Today
We finished discussion nomadic pastoralists.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Nomadic pastoralists: why did they adapt to become so warlike?

Tuesday - 03/26/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring primary and secondary sources of nomadic pastoralists.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Nomadic pastoralists.

Monday - 03/25/2019

What We Did Today
We read about nomadic pastoralists from the perspective of settled agrarians.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Nomadic pastoralists; historical reading strategies.

Thursday - 03/21/2019

What We Did Today
We did some reading of primary and secondary sources about nomadic pastoralist societies.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Nomadic pastoralists.

Wednesday - 03/20/2019

What We Did Today
We worked in groups to create short presentations on domesticated animals in nomadic pastoral societies.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Which animal were you an expert on?

Tuesday - 03/19/2019

What We Did Today
We did some reading about nomadic pastoralists.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Nomadic pastoralists.

Monday - 03/18/2019

What We Did Today
We started talking about nomadic pastoralism.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Nomadic pastoralism.

Friday - 03/15/2019

What We Did Today
We watched a portion of a video called "The Evolution of Us."

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Evolution of Us.

Thursday - 03/14/2019

What We Did Today
We finished talking about the four river valley civilizations.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Civilizations.

Tuesday - 03/12/2019

What We Did Today
We became experts on different river valley civilizations, then shared our expertise with others.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Mesopotamia, Nile, Indus, Yellow River: Which civilization did you read about? What can you tell me about that civilization? How can you tell it's a civilization?

Friday - 03/08/2019

What We Did Today
We finished watching Guns, Germs, and Steel, highlighting the reasons behind global inequality.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Wednesday - 03/06/2019

What We Did Today
We looked for evidence of characteristics of civilization to determine whether or not the four river valley societies were actually civilizations.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Characteristics of civilization; Mesopotamia; Nile; Indus; Yellow.

Tuesday - 03/05/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring the four early river valley civilizations, focusing on the characteristics of a civilization.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Cities; specialization; hierarchy; the state; networks of trade; technology; monuments; spiritual beliefs and laws; creativity.

Monday - 03/04/2019

What We Did Today
We looked more closely at the four river valley civilizations.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Fertile Crescent; Nile River; Indus River Valley; Yellow River.

Friday - 03/01/2019

What We Did Today
We started a deeper dive into river valley civilizations.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
How were the four original river valley civilizations similar?

Wednesday - 02/27/2019

What We Did Today
We finished exploring geographic luck.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Climate/latitude; large-seeded grasses; large mammals/domestication.

Tuesday - 02/26/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring geographic luck as a way of explaining global inequality and how civilizations developed.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Geographic luck; latitude and climate; large-seeded grasses; large domesticated mammals.

Monday - 02/25/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring the concept of geographic luck.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Geographic Luck; Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Friday - 02/22/2019

What We Did Today
We watched some of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel, which highlighted the concept of geographic luck.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Geographic Luck; Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Thursday - 02/21/2019

What We Did Today
We discussed "geographic luck" as a way to explain why civilizations developed where they developed.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Geographic luck; what makes an area geographically lucky?

Wednesday - 02/20/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring the development of civilizations in the river valley civilizations.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
River Valley Civilizations.

Thursday - 02/14/2019

What We Did Today
We continued exploring civilizations.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Defining characteristics of civilizations; define 'civilization'.

Wednesday - 02/13/2019

What We Did Today
We had a conversation about 'civilizations.'

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Civilizations; civilized.

Monday - 02/11/2019

What We Did Today
We took a test.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
How'd your test go?

Thursday - 02/07/2019

What We Did Today
Students studied for Monday's test.

Homework
Continue studying.

Discussion Starters
Let's study for the test with these notes.

Tuesday - 02/04/2019

What We Did Today
We started studying for a unit test.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages.

Friday - 02/01/2019

What We Did Today
We changed seats (with the new month), then did a bit of writing about life in Catalhoyuk.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
New seats; why did foragers NOT develop villages like Catalhoyuk?

Tuesday - 01/29/2019

What We Did Today
Classes continued the conversation of Catalhoyuk; 6th hour watched the finals of the school-wide Geography Bee.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Catalhoyuk.

Thursday - 01/24/2019

What We Did Today
NWEA testing.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
NWEA.

Tuesday - 01/22/2019

What We Did Today
NWEA testing.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
NWEA.

Friday - 01/18/2019

What We Did Today
We worked a bit in our textbook.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Farming.

Thursday - 01/17/2019

What We Did Today
We read and answered questions about Çatalhöyük.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Çatalhöyük.

Wednesday - 01/16/2019

What We Did Today
We explored life in early settled villages, focusing specifically on specialization.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Specialization; Çatalhöyük.

Tuesday - 01/15/2019

What We Did Today
We responded to the prompt: Why did so few people live during humanity's longest era of history (the Foraging Era)?

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Why did the human population grow so much more during the Agrarian Era, even though it was much shorter than the Foraging Era?

Monday - 01/14/2019

What We Did Today
We finished discussing the Agricultural Revolution.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Crops; 70% of humanity lived during the Agrarian Era (10,000 years).

Friday - 01/11/2018

What We Did Today
We explored when various fruits and vegetables were first cultivated in the world.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Agrarian Era; Timeline.

Thursday - 01/10/2018

What We Did Today
We continued exploring the Agricultural Revolution, focusing on a timeline of world history.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Timeline; major features of the agrarian era.

Wednesday - 01/09/2018

What We Did Today
We began talking about the Agricultural Revolution.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Agrarian; turning point; the Great Thaw.

Monday - 01/07/2018

What We Did Today
We did some reading on foraging lifeways during the Paleolithic age.

Homework
None.

Discussion Staters
Foraging lifeways.

Friday - 01/04/2018

What We Did Today
We did some critical reading about Paleolithic foragers.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Foraging; stone tools.

Thursday - 01/03/2018

What We Did Today
We changed seats, watched CNN10, and explored the Paleolithic Age.

Homework
None.

Discussion Starters
Paleolithic Age; new seats.